A 60-Minute World Tour

The world music beat keeps getting louder. And it’s quickly beginning to reach well beyond Ricky Martin’s swiveling hips or Bob Marley’s reggae rhythms.

Last year, Putumayo (pronounced Poo-too-MY-oh) World Music, the record company in the vanguard of the world music movement, expanded its influence with the creation of the “Putumayo World Music Radio Hour.”

In the radio show, creator and host Dan Storper offers up a 60-minute around-the-world musical trip that is syndicated nationally and available on more than 100 stations around the country. In the Los Angeles area, you can catch it, for now, on KACD-FM (103.1) and Riverside’s KKJT-FM (92.1). (When KACD makes its planned switch to Spanish-language programming, the Putumayo show will be available on another, as yet unannounced, outlet in L.A.)

Guests have already included George Harrison, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Taj Mahal and others. Many individual shows are structured around thematic tie-ins. The show for the first week of March, for example, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with Celtic music from Ireland, Scotland, Galicia and Nova Scotia. The month’s second week was a musical reminder of the vernal equinox. This week’s show--running through Sunday--takes listeners on a “Mediterranean Vacation” with music from Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Al- geria and other countries.

“The ‘Radio Hour’ really represents the whole cultural shift taking place right now, in which Latin and a lot of other types of music are becoming more widely heard,” says Storper, founder of Putumayo and co-host--with San Francisco radio personality Rosalie Howarth--of the “World Music Radio Hour.” “It’s a bit like international food. Every corner now seems to have a Thai or a Chinese or a Japanese restaurant--some kind of exotic cuisine. People are traveling more, there’s a growing upscale audience, and artists like the Buena Vista Social Club, Santana, the Gipsy Kings and Ladysmith Black Mambazo are breaking through everywhere.”

Storper makes it clear that the “Putumayo World Music Radio Hour,” despite its title, is not a promotional vehicle for Putumayo recordings, though the L.A. entertainment community has been quick to pick up on the music. Says Storper: “L.A. is now the No. 1 market in the country for Putumayo recordings. . . . The music is turning up in film, television and commercials. We’ve had songs from our albums on a lot of TV shows--’Party of Five,’ ‘Sex and the City.’ ”

But Storper’s focus is also on uncovering and showcasing unknown musical talent that may never make it onto Putumayo’s label. “We’re trying to introduce artists who we feel deserve greater exposure because they produce great songs that have a universal appeal,” he says. “And what’s really exciting about the radio show is that I have the opportunity to play a lot of stuff that I can’t always release on an album. Last February, for example, I went to Senegal and Cape Verde and heard some incredible music in both places. There’s more than just Cesaria Evora in Cape Verde and more than Youssou N’Dour in Senegal--even though those artists are incredible.

“And my goal is to turn more and more people on to the tremendous variety that exists--beyond the better-known names--in this music. The radio show is an opportunity to take people even deeper into the music than we can with just the record company.”

Putumayo actually began as an apparel company in the ‘70s, importing and redesigning ethnic clothing. (“Seinfeld” fans might recall an episode that took place in the New York Putumayo outlet.) As Storper traveled the world in search of unique items, he found himself equally fascinated by the music he was hearing. The tapes he found here and there gradually made their way into some of his retail stores, customers asked about them, and a record company was born.

Storper quickly became so fascinated with the record company that in 1997 he sold the apparel part of the business to an employee.

Looking for Soul, Culture

“It was really all part of the same thing,” he says. “The clothing was just the beginning of what eventually became a broader desire to turn people on to other cultures, whether it was through apparel, art or music.”

Storper’s approach to the “World Music Radio Hour” is much like the way he has run both the apparel business and the record company.

“For me it’s always been about helping traditional cultures come gently into the modern era,” Storper says. “If it doesn’t have some soul or some element of the culture, it’s not interesting to me. But at the same time, if it’s not accessible--a melody or a color or a fabric that makes you feel good--then I’m probably not going to like it too much.”

Aside from the financial rewards, Storper revels in the small, individual responses he has received from listeners. Like the e-mail from someone who said he was on Prozac but felt that if he’d discovered world music earlier he might have avoided 10 years of depression. Or the fact that the “World Music Radio Hour” is the top-rated show in its hour in Portland, Ore., suggesting, notes Storper, “that the music that we play has a sort of uplifting quality, like experiencing a warm, sunny day in the middle of a cold, wet winter.”

Faith in Universal Appeal of Music

Recognizing that Los Angeles already has plenty of warm, sunny days, Storper stresses his belief in the universality of world music, in its capacity to reach beyond the limitations of language and national borders.

“My hope,” he says, “is that in a place like Los Angeles, with its different communities, Latino and otherwise, that everyone will tune in and that we won’t alienate anyone--the core rock audience or the adult rock audience or any specific ethnic audience. We’d like for them to see the show as an opportunity to experience a somewhat different journey.

“So if somebody happens to find us on the dial,” concludes Storper, “and they’re Latin looking for a Latin station, or Irish or African, or whatever, they’ll simply say, ‘Hey, that’s a good song. I’d like to hear more of it.’ ”

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* The “Putumayo World Music Radio Hour” can be heard on KACD-FM (103.1), Sundays at 10 a.m., and on KKJT-FM (92.1), Saturdays at 8 a.m.

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“The ‘Radio Hour’ really represents the whole cultural shift taking place right now, in which Latin and a lot of other types of music are becoming more widely heard.”

DAN STORPER,

Creator and host of

the “World Music Radio Hour”